Holy Thursday in Rome

He is risen, truly risen.  Alleluia!  Happy Easter.

As promised, I finally have a few minutes to write about my Holy Thursday experience in Rome.  Leading up to Holy Week, one of my professors kept telling us about a great tradition here in Rome.  After the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Eucharist is taken over to the altar of repose and many of the churches stay open until midnight or later.  They do so to allow the faithful to come in and remain with Our Lord in His Eucharistic presence to pray and spend time with Him.

As many of you know, my parents were in town from Wednesday of Holy Week through Blessed John Paul II’s beatification.  One of the many great gifts of this time with them was sharing this Holy Thursday tradition with them.  It had been a long day, as were most of our days together, filled with sightseeing and Holy Thursday Mass so we were pretty tired.  However, I was able to take them to a couple of churches to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament with them and to show them the churches.

One church which I was particularly excited to show them was the Basilica of Saint Augustine.  During my time in philosophy, I was able to take a class on the Philosophy of St. Augustine, which completely changed my view of philosophy and really made me fall in love with this amazing saint and his mother St. Monica.  I have always liked St. Monica because of here amazing love for her son and the many prayers she offered on his behalf.  I have also enjoyed sharing her story with my mom, sister and sister-in-law especially since my mom’s birthday is on August 26^th, St. Monica’s Feast Day is the 27^th and St. Augustine’s Feast Day is the 28^th.  Last year I left to come to Rome on Aug 25^th, the day before my mom’s birthday…not the best gift I have ever given her.  The second day I was here in Rome we went to the Basilica of St. Augustine for the first time on St. Monica’s feast day.  This was a great gift as St. Monica is buried in the basilica.  The church quickly became one of my favorites.  It was a great gift to be able to pray for my mom and all the mothers in my life at the tomb of such a holy mother on her feast day.  Sharing this gem of a church with my family was even more special on such a holy and special night.  Walking in, we saw around 30 people in the church at around 8pm, and this made the church even more beautiful.

The same thing happened at the next church and after two or three churches we decided to call it a night since we were worn out from the day and had a busy day on Friday.  I dropped them off at their hotel and began making my way back to the College on the bus.  As the bus was pulling into one of the stops along the way I noticed a church I had never been in before.  I decided to hop off of the bus and go inside to have a look.  I walked in and found a small group of what seemed like parishioners joining in common prayer in front of the altar of repose.  I stayed there a few minutes saying some prayers on my own, and then made my way out.  As I was waiting for the bus I figured it was a nice enough night and decided to walk back to the College from there.  I began my walk and came upon another church that was open and peeked inside.  I continued this journey walking back to the College and stopped at about four of five different churches along the way staying for varying periods in each.  The real inspiration for this blog comes from what I saw in each church.  Every church had anywhere from ten to upwards of fifty people.  It was not just the pious church ladies either, it was a beautiful mix of young people, elderly men and women, parents with their children, groups of teenagers, priests, seminarians, religious and any other type of person you could imagine.  I saw this at every church I entered, from the first at around 8pm until the last at around midnight.  I was most inspired by the young people.  I encountered several groups of teenagers coming in and spending time in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  Many times I find myself getting discouraged with the youth here in Rome, but this experience showed me that the faith is very much alive among them.  Getting to bed late was definitely worth it to be able to spend time with our Lord and to allow Him to show me His love through the faith of others.  If you ever have the opportunity to be in Rome for Holy Week, I definitely recommend taking part in this wonderfully blessed tradition!

Altar of repose at the Basilica of St. Augustine

As always please know of my prayers and please continue to pray for me as we finish up the semester and head into finals at the beginning of June.

In Christ,

Patrick